Two die in separate drownings on Victorian coast

A 34-year-old woman from the Philippines has died in hospital after being pulled from a rip yesterday, and a 75-year-old man has drowned this afternoon, in what has been a tragic two days on Victoria's Gippsland coast.

The woman died in hospital after she got caught in a rip along with a group of her colleagues as they stood knee-deep in the water near the Cape Woolamai Surf Club at Phillip Island just after 7pm last night.

A 27-year-old man from the group is still in Alfred Hospital in a critical condition.

Two other men were taken to a local hospital, one of which was later flown to the Royal Melbourne for treatment.

A large group were at the beach together when they were dragged out to see by a rip. ()

The group of 18 were on a day trip together when they got swept out to sea, witnesses said.

The beach was unmanned at the time of the incident, but paramedic Anthea Chester said people on the beach came to their aid and treated the swimmers on the shore.

“There were two surfers, or I’m not sure if they were surfer or surf lifesavers that were off-duty, that just happened to be swimming,” she said.

“Those two people successfully pulled all seven people out of the water and started CPR, paged some other surf lifesavers and rang triple zero.”

Ms Chester said people from the group told her they were only knee-deep in the water, not even out in the waves.

“All of sudden the ground just went from underneath them and they were getting pulled out backwards just out of the blue,” she said.

A spokesman for Lifesaving Victoria, Greg Scott, said the rescue was hard on the off-duty lifesavers.

“Having multiple unconscious patients at once in the water that you need to manage and multiple resuscitation victims – we’re immensely proud of their efforts that everyone left the beach with a chance of survival,” he said.

Two people were taken to The Alfred Hospital while another was flown to the Royal Melbourne Hospital. ()

“Had the off-duty lifesavers and surfers not been there then we’d be talking about a very, very different outcome.”

Around 4.30pm today, a 75-year-old Maribyrnong man drowned at Coronet Bay, just minutes from Phillip Island.

Police say he was swimming with a relative and was found face down in the water.